In a conventional cooling apparatus for hot bulk material, e.g., sintered ore, the sintered ore is moved along a circular path and, meanwhile, cooling air is introduced for flowing upward from below the path to cool the sintered ore.
A typical example of this type of cooling apparatus is described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1-25277.
This cooling apparatus includes a carrier assembly movable along a circular path which comprises circular side walls interconnected by a connecting beam, and a trough disposed at a bottom portion between the side walls for loading a mass of sintered ore thereon. Cooling air is supplied into an air box provided in the trough. For supplying cooling air into the air box, there is provided a stationary cooling duct extending along the circular path and, on the carrier assembly side, there is provided a trough cooling duct. The gap between the stationary cooling duct and the trough cooling duct is sealed by water sealing.
At a supply/discharge station for supply and discharge of sintered ore formed at a location on the circular path, the trough cooling duct is likely to communicate with the atmosphere and thus allow cooling air to escape from the trough cooling duct. In order to prevent such trouble, there is provided a dead plate for closing an air passage formed in the stationary cooling duct at a portion adjacent the station. Also, there is provided a rubber seal for closing the clearance between the through cooling duct and the dead plate. In other cooling areas on the circular path than at the supply/discharge station, there is also provided a rubber seal between a side plate portion of the stationary cooling duct and a cover of the trough cooling duct in order to prevent cooling air from flowing to the supply/discharge station via the water seal chamber.
With such known arrangement, however, the rubber seal used for closing the gap between the stationary cooling duct and the trough cooling duct is subject to considerable abrasion, which fact necessitates frequent rubber seal replacement. This poses the problem that necessary maintenance is very troublesome.